I took part in an online discussion recently about different trends in the garden design world and one that was mentioned was the Grow Your Own (GYO) trend. Personally, I believe that more and more people are turning to growing something edible in their garden. Whether it is due to the economic climate, the feeling of nurturing and growing, encouraging the children or simply that it helps to keep the carbon footprint down - people are still doing it.

One or two people in this discussion thought that the bubble had certainly burst and indeed one nursery owner said that their sales of fruit and vegetable plants to garden centres had drastically dropped this year in comparison with last year. I have to admit that I was amazed by that comment whether based on fact or gut instinct; to me it just doesn’t ring true. Take this year’s Chelsea Flower Show for example; there were lots of gardens either with an edible theme like Bunny Guinness who designed the M&G Investment garden, it was a modern take on the traditional kitchen garden using raised beds which were crammed full of produce. The B&Q garden being the tallest show garden at Chelsea showed us how we can make small spaces attractive with flowers and still have room for edible crops even on balconies. Both the Hampton Court Palace Show and Tatton Park have had show gardens with an edible theme too.

Having a productive garden – it’s all the rage, bang on trend and everyone seems to want one. The only thing is no-one seems to have the time to tend one and as much as they’re popular now, they can be time consuming and, for beginners, confusing.

You could start small, think about what you like to eat, (take a look at what is in your fridge right now if you’re short on ideas) and rather than having to think about things like crop rotation if you’re growing vegetables you can grow some in containers instead - but if that’s not for you (and it’s not for everyone) – my advice is to think about fruit. It is generally easier to grow, not as time consuming to look after and the rewards are truly wonderful (as our picture shows!).